Well-written John Steinbeck Read-alikes

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• John Steinbeck read-alikes
• Well-written books

Plainsong
By Kent Haruf
F Haruf
An unlikely extended family is formed when a high school teacher helps a pregnant student make a home with two elderly bachelor ranchers.

The Tortilla Curtain
By T. Coraghessan Boyle
F Boyle
Middle-aged Candido Rincon and his pregnant, seventeen-year-old wife, America, illegally enter the United States because of the lack of work in Mexico, but adversity constantly hinders them. This highly engaging story subtly plays on our consciences, forcing us to form, confirm, or dispute social, political, and moral viewpoints.

Ironweed
By William Kennedy
F Kennedy
William Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for the novel Ironweed. Politics drives the plots of Kennedy's realistic urban stories, and the naturalistic detail in setting and characters may remind readers of Steinbeck, despite the urban location. As does Steinbeck, Kennedy feels affection for his quirky characters and values their lives. The protagonist, Francis Phelan, struggles in 1930s Albany to make peace with his past and future.

Angle of Repose
By Wallace Stegner
F Stegner
Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose offers story lines in the past and present, as an ailing history professor immerses himself in his grandmother's papers and life. He follows her journey as an Eastern lady married to a Western engineer through 19th century mining settlements, and as a result confronts some difficult truths in his own life.